I just came back from doing my weekly grocery shopping at Albertsons, and boy am I pissed !

I get the stores weekly store sale ads in the mail, as I`m sure most people do for their local stores. I go to the store in the next town over because it is actually closer than the store in my own town(the towns blend together)

In the ad paper I saw some really great dealsCheese Nips 2 for $4Yoplait yogurt 20 for $10Mothers cookies 2 for $4Lays Stacks potato chip 10 for $10There were more.

When I got to the store and started looking for the advertised sale items something was wrong. ALL of the advertised priceswere higher in the store than in the ad.

When I asked one of the store employees why the prices were different she said " Oh, this is a Hispanic store"(the store is located in a high Hispanic population area) What the hell does that matter ??!!!

I mentioned it to some other Hispanic people in the store, and two of them put their items down and walked out. I did not. I made them honor the ad price- as they should, but I was so F`n pissed !! I am thinking about contacting the news ( I know, ha ha ha ha)

the sales fliers from both stores to see if there were different items on sale at the Hispanic store compared to the White store. It could be that they target the sales items to the major demographic. Or, sale prices could be set to encourage the purchase of certain items that are not moving well, and different levels of purchase at different stores require more or less of this encouragement. If you find that all of the price disparities are in the same direction, then you'll have a firmer basis for criticism... (Although, as someone else has pointed out, I'd bet that that discrimination is more class based than ethnicity based, despite what the employee said.)

There's nothing specifically "racist" in what they're doing. Prices are higher in high income areas (they can afford it), and low income areas (often nowhere else to go and/or they're leeching from people that use food stamps/gov't benefits). They'll soak as much from you as they can get away with (since unlike many other purchases, you need to eat)

Usually at the bottom of the front or back page, it will state "available at xxxxx from March 30 to April 5 (or current date). If it specifies "available in xx stores, they've covered their butt. If it doesn't, you have a right to bitch, and demand the advertised price.

It is commonplace for all different kinds of stores to do what they call regional pricing. Yes, sometimes it's rasist, but mostly, it's "what the market will bear."

You are exactly right - and it isn't racist. If anything, it is an issue of discrimination based on class. It is economics at it its worst. It is like being hungry in an airport or a movie theater - nowhere else to go but to the overpriced vendors there. The difference is people don't live in airports or movie theaters, so the financial imposition of being a captive audience is temporary. For others, who only have one grocery store within walking distance, it is highway robbery!

the wealthier the rent-district, the more expensive the food.But that could be an abberation because there are so many super-rich people here. (I live in Stuy Town. If I shop on 14th street which is the north border of the East Village, the groceries are always cheaper than shopping on 20th, which is at the edge of Gramercy Park. And the 20th Street store is part of a much larger chain I think.)

You definitely should write a formal complaint to the stores customer service office. If it is a big corporation go on line to locate the headquarters address to be sure that your concern isn't blocked at the level of the store.

Some chains that include franchise operations put in the phrase 'at participating stores" you should check for such fine print. It is possible that the store you went to was not a participating store.

But clearly, participation isn't something that should be based on ethnicity.

They probably have their ads online. Locally, our Jewel stores are now owned by Albertsons and I look-up the ads online by store every week. You could check various stores in both upper- and lower-income areas or in both "white" and ethnic areas and see if what you suspect bears out. If it does, I'd complain -- loudly.

So far, all we know is that one "store employee" is most likely a racist. I would have requested time to talk to the manager to find out if that really was the store policy. Or at least to see the manager sweat profusely.

My mom was paying with a credit card. She had her ID, everything checked out. My mom has STELLER credit. The guy STILL went to get the manager. The manager comes out, takes one look at my mom, me and then a very hard look at my grandma and says they can't accept it. My grandma is very dark skinned.

Albertson's can kiss my ass. I shop at the local mexican store. It's only small, but I can get most anything there except my vegetarian stuff which I make a special trip for.

It is against the merchant agreement to demand ID if there is a valid signature on the back of the card, IIRC.

It's amazing how many of my minority friends get the ol' ID check when they use a credit card. In my 15 years of using credit cards, I have only been asked once, and that was when there was no signature on my card.

and like everyone else, shopped at supermarket on the edge of the Yale campus, which also served a largely African-American neighborhood. It was my only choice, because I had no car for the first few years.

After I got a car, I was invited to a barbecue in the suburbs and was asked to pick up some things on my way out there. I stopped at a suburban branch of the same local chain and found lower prices! A larger selection! A cleaner store! Nicer clerks!

two blocks from the Union County line. Since I'm closer to downtown Hillside than downtown Irvington, that's where I shop. And the Shop-Rite in the more affluent Hillside is definitely cheaper than the Pathmark in Irvington.

between the two stores by calling one the "hispanic" store, and the other, who knows what... the "upscale" store. So while the comment sounded racist, maybe the girl was just saying that no, you were looking at the flier for the other place... you know, the one that's not the hispanic store. Various stores are managed by different people and as somebody mentioned, what's on sale in one store might be full price at the one in the next neighborhood. But then, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

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